Man charged with attempted assassination of Obama

An Idaho man who federal investigators say considered President Barack Obama to be the “Antichrist” was charged Thursday with attempting to assassinate Obama last week by firing shots at the White House.

The federal court complaint against Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez, 21, was made public Thursday afternoon during a court hearing in Pittsburgh. The defendant believed the federal government was conspiring against him and that Obama is “the devil,” according to court documents.

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Ortega-Hernandez was arrested Wednesday at a hotel in western Pennsylvania after the Secret Service alerted hotel staff that he might visit the area. At the hearing Thursday, a federal magistrate ordered that Ortega-Hernandez be transferred to Washington to face the new charge, which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.

The defendant’s only comment during the hearing was to reply, “Yes, ma’am” after being asked whether he understood that he would return to Washington, The Associated Press reported.

Last Friday night, witnesses heard gunshots several blocks south of the White House, near the Ellipse. An abandoned Honda Accord with an AK-47 inside was later found near Memorial Bridge. Police have been on the lookout for Ortega-Hernandez since soon after the incident. On Sunday, they obtained a local court warrant, charging him with carrying a dangerous weapon.

The president and first lady Michelle Obama were traveling in California at the time of the incident.

President Obama, traveling in Bali, Indonesia, declined to answer a reporter’s shouted question on the matter Friday.

Police initially said they saw no connection between the shots fired and the White House or the president, but the gravity of the incident became clearer on Tuesday when a bullet was discovered between the outer glass and the bulletproof layer of a window on the White House’s second floor, which is part of the first family’s residential quarters.

“Several bullets and fragments were also collected in that area,” FBI agent Chris Ormerod said in court documents filed Thursday. In addition, on Wednesday, “FBI investigators conducted a search of the area around the White House and located several confirmed bullet impact points on the south side of the building, above the second story.”

The complaint does not claim a direct ballistics match between the recovered rounds and the AK-47 found abandoned on Friday night, nor does it say whether the suspect’s fingerprints were found on the rifle.

However, Ormerod said in the complaint that the Honda found with the weapon inside was registered to Ortega-Hernandez, who lives in Idaho Falls, Idaho. The criminal complaint is used to file preliminary charges against a suspect until a grand jury indictment is returned.

According to the complaint, three witnesses told investigators that Ortega-Hernandez made hostile comments about Obama and seemed intent on harming him. One witness “stated that Ortega-Hernandez wanted to ‘hurt’ President Obama and referred to him as ‘the Antichrist,’” Ormerod said. Another quoted the suspect as saying he “needed to kill” Obama, according to the complaint, while a third said Ortega-Hernandez considered Obama “the devil” who “needed to be taken care of.”